Supergirl: 5 Things We Want to See In the Second Half of Season 2

Supergirl got off to a strong start in its sophomore season, bringing on Superman for an acclaimed two-part story before introducing the President of the United States in the form of Wonder Woman star Lynda Carter.

It kept things moving throughout the first half of the season, rarely coming up for air before getting its biggest ratings of the year — and bringing The CW its biggest Monday in years — with last week’s midseason finale, which tied into the Invasion! crossover.

There are already some pretty exciting ideas ahead for the second half of the season: Mr. Mxyzptlk is coming to the show, and there’s a second crossover with The Flash confirmed — this one a musical.

Now that the show is off for a month or so, and Super-fans are likely fixing for stuff to talk about tonight, we figured we’d offer a few ideas for what they can do to carry their momentum forward and maybe even make the second half of the season stronger than the first.

FIX CADMUS (OR LOSE IT)

The Cadmus storyline drove a lot of the first half of season 2, but it never entirely seemed to find its legs. Okay, so Lex and Lena’s mother is involved — was that it? That’s the big offering?

While the first half of Supergirl‘s second season delivered arguably the most consistently entertaining episodes of any of The CW’s four DC superhero shows, this one big piece of the puzzle never really seemed to fit.

Of course, we still have the dangling plot thread of Jeremiah Danvers and the fact that he remains with Cadmus and likely is a prisoner there. While he clearly was doing some kind of work for them and had earned their trust and his freedom, the decision to free Kara and Mon-El likely won’t go over well with management — especially when there’s likely to be a leadership vacuum following Lillian Luthor’s arrest.

So in all likelihood, Cadmus isn’t going completely away, but we can still hope that the role of the organization either gets better defined, or reduced. There are plenty of ways to make Cadmus something really worthwhile — including turning them into a factory for villains if that’s the way you want to go. They’ve already produced Cyborg Superman, and we know that in the comics they’re known for genetic tinkering, so who’s to say they won’t provide some uglies for the Maid of Might to fight?

Either way would be fine. The biggest problem so far, honestly, is that Cadmus has felt more or less like just “Max Lord with backup,” and Lillian Luthor hasn’t really brought anything to the table beyond being a Luthor to dispel that notion. Season 2 has taken a big leap forward in many important ways, but in terms of its looming threat? Cadmus has felt like it was still stuck in season 1.

MORE SNAPPER

Snapper Carr has been a fun addition to the cast, but we haven’t really had much chance to see him.

Given how much importance was placed on Kara’s decision to follow in Clark’s footsteps and become a reporter, it would be nice to see how the Supergirl version of the Perry White character functions more than once in a blue moon.

While visiting the set a while back, we did ask series star Melissa Benoist what she thought was the biggest difference between Snapper and Cat Grant, who has been ruling her kingdom largely in absentia this year.

“They’re two totally different beasts, Snapper and Cat. Snapper’s a bit more immovable,” Benoist said.”He’s kind of a brick wall that she doesn’t know how to scale or knock down. With Cat it was more maternal. She was a role model that she really grew from, who taught her to look beyond the expected in herself and become more of a woman. Snapper, I think, has just no sensitivity to that. So it’s fun in that respect, that we’re constantly just butting heads, whereas with Cat we’d butt heads and then say ‘Sorry, this is what I learned.’”

Given his importance to the original Invasion! storyline from the comics, and the fact that the Dominators are coming to Supergirl later this season, maybe we’ll finally see him get out of the office and get some fresh air…!

A BALANCE FOR “SANVERS”

There are a lot of moving parts to the Alex Danvers/Maggie Sawyer romance to consider, which is why it might be difficult to get just right in the second half of the season.

Representation matters, and in the name of positive representation, it’s often tempting for writers and producers to depict LGBT relationships as basically perfect; the Supergirl team has already said that won’t be the case with Alex and Maggie, who will have their challenges going forward like any straight couple would.

And that’s great — character-wise, and story-wise, that gives them a lot of room to play. The only downside? Those characters aren’t Kara, and since this is a superhero show, your title character has both a personal life — Kara Danvers, reporter — and a “secret” life as Supergirl to serve. That doesn’t leave a ton of screen time for things that aren’t directly related to her, and obviously James Olsen already has an ongoing plot centering around his decision to become a costumed vigilante that has been taking up some of that real estate.

We aren’t here to say we want less of these characters and their relationship in any way, shape or form — but what the writers will have to do is find a balance between time spent on developing a realistic relationship and time spent watching them kick ass with the DEO and the Science Police. We’re confident they can do it, becuase they’ve done a pretty good job so far, but now that the couple is in place, time spent with them will feel markedly different than it did during the “will-they-or-won’t-they” period.

FIND A ROLE FOR GUARDIAN

So far, the Guardian storyline has felt like it was primarily about finding a role for James Olsen, now that he’s no longer the potential love interest for Kara and no longer a day-to-day part of her work at CatCo (which itself feels like it’s taken a bit of a backseat with Cat gone).

That’s fine, since Mehcad Brooks is a hell of an actor and his James Olsen is a highlight of the show…but really, there could be any number of creative ways to give him more to do without creating a Batman/Arrow-type subplot in the middle of Supergirl. 

We’re going to assume that he’ll become more a part of Team Supergirl or Team DEO once his secret is revealed to Kara, but if that’s the case, let’s make it sooner than later, since at the moment most of the Guardian stuff has been fun…but filler.

THE LEGION

This one is way more “off the reservation” than the rest of our want-list, in the sense that it isn’t as closely tied to what’s been going on already this season.

Still, it’s a fair ask, we think, and it’s something that could inform and enrich Supergirl, give Mon-El a sense of direction he’s currently lacking, and it could pay off a tease from way back in season 1.